Last night, Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, trended on twitter for defending Buhari’s ‘age limit statement’.
While speaking to members of the Nigerian community in South Africa on June 16, President Buhari said that at 72 years old “there are limits to what he could do” as president.
This statement had even the most loyal Buharist wondering, “why the heck did he say that?” while the opposition gloated saying “Ntoin! We told you so…he’s too old”
Femi Adesina in a bid to defend his boss, issued a statement saying “As the saying goes, “old wines are tasty” and the President Buhari we have today is a man, like old wine, that has got tastier. “
Nigerians on twitter bashed him (Femi) for the statement and even compared him to Reuben Abati.
About that time, Punch newspaper published an interview they had with him.
In the interview Femi revealed how he forged a relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari,
which led to him being appointed to the Presidency.
Adesina, who is a respected journalist, was until recently, the
Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Sun, says he has believed in
Buhari as far back when he was a military ruler.
He stated that his unsolicited writing and articles about Buhari over
the years, was particularly what made Buhari, reach out to him for the
position of Special Adviser when he became President.
Read below excerpts from Adesina’s interview with Punch Newspapers:
“The President is somebody that I have admired for a long
time since he was a military ruler. When he was a military ruler, I was
already in my third year in the university. So, I can say I knew him
and his style and I liked it. I felt sorry when his government was
overthrown. So, when he came back into partisan politics in 2003, it was
something that was very exciting for me and since then, I have been
supporting him.
I am a journalist and I write a weekly column. I have
been pointing Nigerians in his direction since 2003.And whenever I wrote anything in his (Buhari’s) support, he would
call me on the phone and we would discuss and he would thank me. I
remember in 2009 or thereabout when Prof. Tam David-West wrote a book on
Buhari and it was to be presented at the Nigerian Institute of
International Affairs. I was the master of ceremony of the occasion so
we got to speak and know each other better.
That was the first time I would meet him (Buhari) in person.
Thereafter, he ran for President in 2011 and I still wrote in my column
that I thought he was the best person to rule Nigeria and bring a
change. Whenever I wrote those things, he would call me and he would
thank me and we would talk.
So, eventually, in August 2013, I lost my mother and we needed to do
her funeral. So, I sent Buhari an invitation card. The service was in
Lagos and lo and behold, before the service started, he drove in. It was
a pleasant surprise. It was a Christian service and he sat through it.
Those who had said that he was a religious bigot were shocked. This was a
Muslim man that came for a Christian service and attended the full
service and yet they were saying he was a religious bigot.
So, that act cemented our relationship because after the event, I
phoned him the next day and thanked him but he said he was the one that
should be grateful because he had never given me a kobo and yet I always
gave him all the support. He said there were people that could pay me
millions of naira for such support but I had decided to pitch my tent
with somebody that could not give me anything.
So, that cemented our
relationship.
You know, in 2011, he said he would not contest the Presidency again
but in the run up to the 2015 election, I felt he should still run and I
wrote that the fact that he said in 2011 that he would not run again
could not be carved in concrete and he could change his mind if he
wanted and the rest, they say, is history. He changed his mind, he ran
and he won. Significantly, on the night that he was declared the winner,
my phone rang around midnight and one of our leaders in the media
called and said, ‘Please hold on for Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’. I was
shocked and when he spoke to me, he said he appreciated my support
throughout the campaigns and now that victory had come his way, he just
wanted to say thank you. So, that was how it played out.
How did you get the appointment? Did he call you or were you interviewed?
After he had been declared winner and after he had called me on the
telephone, I deliberately stayed away from him for two reasons. The
first was because I knew he would be under a lot of pressure. A lot of
people would be calling to congratulate him and probably seeking one
thing or the other. So, I think from that night, which was March 31, I
deliberately stayed away from him because I did not want to add to the
pressure that would be on him and secondly, I didn’t want it to be that I
was seeking a position in his government.
I am a born again Christian and I want anything that happens or comes
my way to be what God has ordained. I don’t push anything; I don’t
lobby for anything so I kept my distance from him. But then, people
around him kept talking to me and kept telling me that they believed I
was the best person to be the spokesman for the incoming President.
However, I did not give any commitment for two reasons. The first, as I
said earlier, was that I didn’t want to lobby and secondly, I have a job
that I enjoy doing: Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of one of the
leading newspapers in the country, The Sun, and then I was also the
President of the Nigeria Guild of Editors.
Those are high calibre jobs and responsibilities. So, I wasn’t
looking for a job but then people around me kept talking to me till
eventually, there was some sort of interview but I would not say it was a
direct interview but people singled me out to say, ‘Well, if you are
invited to serve in government, will you serve?’. My conviction had
always been that I would never serve in a government except one headed
by Muhammadu Buhari. So, when they singled me out, I told them I didn’t
think I wanted to serve in the government but since it is Muhammadu
Buhari, I will consider it.
But I also reminded them that I also have a job and I have to consult
with my publisher (Orji Uzor Kalu) and I have to seek his blessings.
Reluctantly too, my publisher gave his blessings. He told me that they
would not know the sacrifice he had made by letting me go but since it
is a service to the country, I have his blessings. So, I got back to
them and told them yes, that I had sought my publisher’s blessing and
the next I heard was the announcement that I had been appointed Special
Adviser on Media and Publicity.”